A Soldier's Trials
by Revriley
Summary: Suki was only able to rescue Toph during the battle of Sozin's Comet. Sokka, who managed to survive the airship's crash landing with multiple injuries , must find his way back to his friends through the war-torn countryside.


**Summary: ** Suki was only able to rescue Toph during the battle of Sozin's Comet. Sokka, who managed to survive the airship's crash landing (with multiple injuries), must find his way back to his friends through the war-torn countryside.

**Disclaimer: **Psh. You guys know the drill.

**Note:** This idea's been floating around in my head for a while now, and I have a whole heap of scenes and dialogue that has yet to be coherently strung together. Not that I've abandoned my Merlin stories in favor of this, but this idea _will not let me go. _Seriously guys, it just won't leave me. (Also, a story based on Katara's "You didn't love her like I did" comment to Sokka is a pretty tempting piece of writing I'd like to eventually start. Also, sorry guys, but I don't do the romance fics. This won't focus on any pairing of any sort.

Oh, and this is my first Avatar fic. Hope you like it!

**[[[[[[[]]]]]]]]**

Sokka could feel Toph's hand slipping from his grasp. Desperately he clutched at her fingertips, trying with all his might to ignore the terrible pain in his leg. There was too much going on at once—seven fire nation warriors ready to attack him on one end, Toph dangling over a dizzying height by the tips of his—their fingers, and the fact that he was lying on his back, unable to get up for fear of dropping Toph and, of course, the fact that his leg might be broken.

Not to mention that he'd lost both his boomerang _and_ his space sword.

Sokka whimpered a bit. "I don't think boomerang's coming back, Toph!" He shouted over the wind, never taking his eyes of the soldiers in front of him. "It looks like..." his voice nearly cracked "...this is the end."

Suddenly, the seven soldiers retreated, running away towards the inner rooms of the airship. Sokka twisted around, attempting to discern what had the soldiers so unnerved.

Another airship slammed into his own, causing the metal protrusion he lay upon to shudder violently. Sokka's eyes widened as he felt Toph slip from his grasp. Panicking, he rolled over on his stomach just in time to see her land upon the second airship's frame. Luckily, Toph didn't slide off and instead flopped onto her stomach to latch onto the metal more securely. Sokka smiled, then immediately grimaced—rolling over had increased the pain in his leg.

_Sokka!_

Had someone called him? Sokka could hardly tell over the wind. He peered at the airship again.

Oh.

It was Suki, who waved frantically to him as she tightly clung to a stretch of rope. She proceeded to motion something with her hands—instructions, Sokka thought. After a moment, he realized what she wanted him to do—drop down onto her airship. Sokka frowned at this, deeply concerned about what would happen to his leg if he did so. He could become a permanent cripple if he landed wrong.

The seconds Sokka took to analyze his situation cost him. There was a horrendous grinding of metal sliding over metal as the airships shifted in position. Sokka's airship tilted in the air, to the point where it was almost sideways. Sokka tumbled forward on the jutting platform, his leg protesting in agony at the action. There was another shudder throughout the ship's frame, and with that Suki's airship dislodged itself from Sokka's, which seemed to be going through a death ritual of its own. Debris was everywhere, and it felt like most of it was aiming for Sokka. Distracting though the condition of his body was, Sokka couldn't help but feel a grim satisfaction when he saw each of the seven soldiers originally attacking him fall to their deaths, the ship mercilessly casting them overboard with its destruction.

Sokka glanced at Suki again, who was shouting at him now, her face panicked. Toph had joined her by this point, and having apparently been informed of what was happening was just as insistent in her pleadings to have Sokka jump onto their airship. At least, that was what Sokka thought they were saying. The two girls looked so terrified for him that he felt a few tears springing to his eyes. He dearly wanted to join them, to dive majestically off the airship and to land heroically on their airship without having anymore major injuries occur. But it just wasn't possible—both ships were moving in a way that left Sokka no guarantee of landing safely on the other airship. There was a major chance that he'd end up tumbling right off Suki's airship as soon as he hit it—or that he'd miss it entirely.

Sokka half-heartedly grinned at them, and then raised his hand in a farewell gesture. Then he looked back towards the main ramps of the airship. He narrowed his eyes. He'd be safer there when the worst came. By safe, he meant his body would still be recognizable when scavengers came to loot the airship weeks from now, when it would be smoldering on the ground from its inevitable crash landing.

Sokka started to crawl towards the main ramps.

Tremors ran through the ship, unceasingly.

And the ship began to fall.

Sokka let out a hoarse yell of fear as the mighty ship began to plummet. While it certainly wasn't fast, the plummet, it was far from slow, and Sokka's weak grip upon the metal failed him. He was torn away from the platform, and would have been so from the ship as well had he not grabbed the ornaments adorning the front of the ship in time. He clung to the decorations in terror, wrapping his arm around a small column while securing a foot in a shallow carving.

And so secured, Sokka shut his eyes and waited.

**[[[[[[[[[[[[]]]]]]]]]]**

"_No!_" Suki clamped a hand to her mouth, watching as the airship in front of her begin to fall. Sokka had managed to keep himself from being whisked away in the winds, but Suki knew that it wouldn't matter. It would be nearly impossible to survive such a crash that would ensue from such a large monstrosity of an airship.

"What? What happened?" Toph had latched herself onto Suki, the fabric of Suki's clothing entangled in her clenched fists. The stoic earthbender, Suki realized, was scared.

"What's happening to Sokka?" Toph demanded, her voice trembling. "Didn't he jump onto the airship?"

Suki bit her lip. "It's...no, he didn't." Toph tried to interrupt. Suki pressed on. "He's still on the other airship. And...and...oh, Toph!" She choked a bit, a lump rapidly growing in her throat. "The ship's done for."

Toph's grip tightened for a moment, and then she stumbled away from Suki, her face alight with horror. Suki grabbed Toph's wrist, ensuring that the girl wouldn't accidentally slip and fall to her death.

"No! We've gotta save Sokka!" Toph lashed out at her, tears forming in her eyes. "We hafta take this ship down and rescue him!"

"We can't." Suki mumbled, gazing at Sokka's ship crumbling below her.

Toph gaped at her. "What do you mean, we can't? Are you seriously considering _abandoning_ him, after all he's done for us?"

"We won't make it in time. The wind is working against us, Toph. That, and..." Suki swallowed painfully. "We need to go see if Aang needs our help."

"And Sokka doesn't?" Toph hissed, yanking her arm out of Suki's grasp. "Don't you _care_ about him?"

There was a terrible burning inside Suki's throat. "Don't. Don't go there, Toph. I can't..." Suki felt the tears begin to trickle down her cheeks. "I care so much for him Toph. And I'd love more than anything for us to rescue him. But the world comes first. Sokka knows that."

Toph was quiet for a moment. "On the day of the eclipse..." she murmured slowly, "we were chasing Azula down these corridors when she mentioned you and how you were her favorite prisoner or something. Sokka went ballistic. Even though the whole point of the eclipse was to take advantage of it to overthrow Ozai, Sokka spent the last few minutes interrogating Azula on your whereabouts."

She lapsed into silence, turning to face the direction of the heat radiating from the demise of Sokka's airship.

"Toph..."

The earthbender sniffed, and came forward to stand beside Suzi. Wordlessly, the two girls hugged each other. They hugged for what seemed a long while.

When the two finally separated, Suki wiped her eyes and began to turn the ship around...towards the fate of the world, certainly, and away from one of the bravest souls she'd ever been blessed to know.


End file.
